Local Ingenuity in the Face of Global Warming

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Tell the folks in Delhi that you are planning to visit their Ladakh region (known in India as "Little Tibet") and they'll look at you as if you proposed a trip to the moon. The region has been studied by critics of globalization and made better known by a documentary titled "The Economics of Happiness." Now "National Geographic" shows how the remote Indian village of Skara located on the western edge of the Tibetan plateau is responding to global warming-induced water shortages by creating large masses of ice, or "artificial glaciers," to get through the dry spring months. In recent decades global warming has caused water shortages in April and May when villagers plant their traditional crops of barley, potatoes, etc. A local engineer named Chewang Norphel came up with the novel irrigation idea in the 1980s, and 10 artificial glaciers have been built to date. The largest occupies an area of more than a square mile. Meanwhile, Mongolia is about to launch a project creating a huge manmade ice block to combat the sweltering summer in the capital city of Ulan Bator. As the ice melts, it will cool the city and provide fresh drinking water. (See Writer's Opinion block for link.) Read the full article.

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